The joys of commuting as an aspie/autie

Post Reply New Topic

Maybe we should each get a TARDIS.

Last edited by Ragtime on 16 May 2007, 10:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

Hello
All businesses that provide a service to the public have to provide accomodations to disabled people to enable them to use the service as easily as the rest of the public. I would suggest , if you havent done this already that you call customer services for the stations which you are using , a freind of mine is in a wheelchair and calls up in advance to arrange for an escort to help her so that she can more easily find and get onto her train , they meet her as soon as she arrives and stay with her until she departs , I would think this service would be available at all stations , especially in london as i'm quite sure they have numerous disabled people struggling to use there services . I would call up , explain your difficulties and ask if they would be able to provide some kind of asistance to help make your journey somewhat less complicated and traumatic.

Girl7000, I really wish you and I could swap jobs/commutes, simply because several factors in my daily joruney would work much more in your favor:

1. My commute is less than a half hour by one bus -- no changing buses inbetween, and no trains at all.
2. Of all the buses stopping at the stop near my home, the one I need to get on has half of it's front painted blue (special type of "fast" bus route that doesn't serve every stop along the way); all other buses serving that stop are a warm yellow all over their exterior. Hughe visual cue that's visible waaaay before anyone can read the destination sign on the front of the oncoming bus!
3. My workplace is in an area with lots of other office buildings, so about half of the bus' "payload" of people gets off there. Sit near the exit, and you'll get a little "useful noise" and activity around you at the time you need to get off.

Here come a few tips I hope helps a bit:
* Make "visual notes" of things like noticeable buildings or other cityscape features, or features at the stop/station itself; e.g. "I get off at the stop immediately after the house with that big orange neon sign on it", or "At the station where I need to get off, the gaps between the advertising signs are wider because of some pillars or other structure inbetween them; this is not seen at any statio before that one".
* Get a pocket MP3 player, and a set of earphones; the kind that forms a shielding "cup" around your ear -- be sure you get to try before you buy; you'd want the kind that cuts off most of the ambient noise. Besides blocking out a great deal of the noise, they also indicate to your surroundings that it'll take som effort to "interrupt" you -- the bloak who wants you to tell the time or borrow your cell phone (yup, I've had those) will hopefully try someone else. The bullies are, unfortunately, a whole and other story alltogether I'm afraid...
* If you have a cell phone (even a basic model like mine), see if it has a "Notifications" feature; this is like an alarm clock; you can set it up to beep or vibrate at, say, a minute before your particular train or bus arrive, and shotly before it arrives at your destination. Note that this, of course, does not take any delays into account. The "alarm clock" feature is something that the phone does entirely by itself; it doesn't use the network services, so if your phone company charges you anything for using that feature, then sack'em!
* A similar solution would be to rig that MP3-player up with a special playlist that includes "tracks" that are simply yourself saying e.g. "Hey, we're in Whatever-ville -- time to get off" or "Heads up; if it's not delayed, the next train will be the one to get on!" -- everything timed so that if you play the "timed playlist" as soon as you get on the first train, you get those "cues" when you need them (again this has no "safeguard" mechanism against any delays).

I hate public transport. I've never got th bus on my own before. There's a bus that goes from the end of my road to Oxford Rd, which is where my university is, but I still get dropped off and picked up every day.

nothing major like the OP, but I do have the normal aspie difficulties with public transport. I'm fortunate my train ride is only 15 mins each way (don't think I could deal with an hour plus).

I have different transit issues I suppose. I am HFA or AS depending on who you talk to.(or how long the doc has known me lol)

Spectrum wise my issues:

* Being so visual that I get motion sick. - If this occurs I have motion sickness pills I carry.
* Tinny/echoy noise areas. - I may not hear things. But transit platforms here tend to also have digital signs.
* Proximity to large volume of people at busy times. - This can again make me want to take motion sick pills because of the nausea it can cause me or the disoriented feeling.
* Seating - Some seats bother my ears more.

Non Spectrum wise:

* Accessable Seating. - I'm arthritic so I like to sit sometimes near the front where the disabled seating is. Other times I need to stand it depends what thing is bugging me. I have a issue with people putting huge strollers in and taking seats from the elderly and disabled. I think they should fix the seating so there is a stroller area and a disabled/seniors area. For now people don't fold strollers and all share the same area at the front of the bus.

* Crowding on the bus during busy times. - This is problematic for finding a place to sit or stand and getting on/off the bus. Or for that matter tracking stops because you can't see them.

---

My current transit is near my home that I use the most. This means buses about every 15 min until a certain time of day then it drops to a 1/2 hr or 1 hr service later. I'd have to look over the schedule again but usually I travel when it's during the 15min service runs. However this fall I will be going to college and it requires a 1.5 hr commute to get there and another commute of the same time to get home. No matter which route combination I take it all seems to work out to the same length of travel time.

We do have disabled transit here which is mini buses but they are med priority. Outside of medical priority they do book but they require you to be ready 1/2 hr before pickup and you can stand/wait several hours for return ride pickup. Routing is odd and you may have to transfer a few times between the buses to get to destination. I had this happen at least twice taking it to specialist appointments in past. I think it's sort of a general view here of disabled and elderly that HandyDarts are hardly handy half the time. The drivers are nice and the theory behind it but it needs more drivers/buses or something.

Regular transit here isn't so bad for variety. We have a SeaBus(ferry), Skytrain(monorail), WestCoast Express(LRT - diesel train), community shuttles(small buses), and buses(regular, articulated, and trolly - electrical). Depending on where you are service runs every 10 min for some buses but the trains run less frequent. Skytrain is every 6 minutes but the other train it's only I think 4 trains a day in each direction at specific times for morning/work end rush. This is in the GVRD area. Other areas of BC have way less transit options.

GreyHound is limited. It runs many areas but some do not link up right and it can be expensive. Visiting my sister is over $300 return for me and my son, to visit my brother in the US it's around $200, and to visit my mom only around $100 but wont link to her town only a nearby one with a 1.5 hr commute. Trains are limited and I think run by AMTRAK and one other and they are expensive.

---

Anyways with my transit rides I usually go point A to point B. We can check schedules online and also trip plan online. I tend to look for the fastest route or the least walking required. I also do notice most times if there is a service alert online to warn me if something is wrong with a bus/train. I use a transit pass which is only given to seniors or disabled on fixed incomes. So that is useful. But it will not work with the HandyDart system. The HandyDart system also is linked to a taxi fare saver program but again it has no relation to regular transit system and is accessed given access too differently.

I don't have a cellphone but will be getting one for school. I used to use a ham radio I have and wonder around with it in my bag. Unfortunately I've killed off its batteries so need to get some new rechargeables. But ham radios are good in case of emergency but I also used to be able to listen to the police channels so I'd be aware if anything bad was in the area. They changed which frequencies they use so I can't do that anymore however if something came up I could call on the radio maybe.

I work in London also, and have to use the tube, I use all the above,- trainers, mp3, and a book on occaisions. I also try to travel realy early (5am) so there are fewer people about and take a later train in the evening for the same reason. I find that since its the tube, I can plan alternative routes should it be realy necessary to do so as I have little tolerance for un-planned changes and being late. What realy upsets me on the tube / public transport is people who don't pay for their ticket and 'double up' with me (or others) through the barriers, putting feet and or luggage on seats and worst of all, siting next to me when there are loads of free seats!

Wow. London public transit sounds really bad. Remind me to never attempt to use public transit in big cities. I live in Portland Maine and we dont have a whoile lot of public transit but what we have is small, friendly and clean enough that it is bearable - we have buses - only within Portland and a couple suburbs - not a lot but enouhg most of the time. When Im living at my dad's there's no bus out here though so that is difficult.

I have taken the metro in DC and that is hard, lots of people, busy, hard to figure out, sensory overload. The trains in Philly are a little better, but stil, hard to figure out and sensory overload.

I would not like to have to take public transit from a major city every day. On the Portland buses I usually get a two-seat row to myself, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've had to sit next to someone, it's usually not very crowded. Of course I dont travel at peak times either. But the few times I have it's been bearable.

Anything more than half an hour starts to get to me, though.

Greyhound buses are intolerable to me because you are squished in like sardines. No room.

Amtrak trains are usually nice.... but I still hate beeing on one for more than a couple hrs. I'd rather fly.

Kate

bicycles rule!